If it's good enough for Victoria...

You may be forgiven for thinking, looking at my rough photo montage below that Stila Cosmetics may have launched a makeup line with Victoria Beckham. They haven’t. However, during her recent interview in the May 2012 issue of Harper's Bazaar, Victoria Beckham shared some of her beauty secrets and declared her love for Stila cosmetics, particularly the brighten and correct concealer and the perfecting concealer. I can't obviously check whether Victoria does indeed carry these on her handbag, but it made me very curious about the products.




 


So what makes these concealers different?

Brighten and Correct Concealer (£18)
They say: This Multi-purpose under eye brightener, illuminator and correcting concealer in s enriched with Haloxyl, to help to reduce the appearance of dark circles, Zinc which acts as an antioxidant, Magnesium to help maintain the skin’s barrier, Chlorine to maintain mineral concentrations, plus Sodium and Potassium which are key electrolytes. This concealer is swirled with two shades, one for brightening and the other to correct imperfections.    


Stila Perfecting Concealer (£15)
They say: This high performance concealer is ideal for covering blemishes, scars, redness, dark circles. It can even be used as a full coverage foundation.



To say that I have not found my holy grail foundation is an understatement and If my local Boots was big enough to store Stila products, I would have been definitely tempted to swatch the perfecting concealer and test it for coverage /cakiness. For now, I'll just have to lust for it.




Disclosure: I heard from Stila and Victoria Beckham by email and didn’t receive any incentive whatsoever to write about it. Credit: Montage on the first picture was made from stock product photos from Beautybay.com. The picture from Victoria Beckham dates from yesterday (15 April 2012) and was published on zimbio.com.

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Me, myself and my under eye triangles

Do you sometimes feel that it's that the people who are in most in need of certain things who ignore the existence of these things and the little boost it could do to their self confidence? I've seen women with a potential cracking figure but who let themselves down and their figure by wearing an ill fitting bra? Maybe that's the trauma of having your breast measured, I don't know. I've got practically no lashes whatsoever and the little I have are hopelessly thin and straight. Do I wear any mascara? I don't even bother most of the time, there is only so much a mascara can do. Plus the flaming mascara always slips down on my face, making me look worse.


 I 'suffer' (I am not in pain or anything but I can't find a better word) from very bad eye circles It's always been there. It feels like that I have never had enough fat under my eyes to cover the orbit of my eye. It's the bane of my life. Do I wear under eye concealer? Do I heck? I've tried to, but I find it settles into the {not so fine anymore} lines and I get even more self conscious.


I was bored in the train journey and took this picture of myself using my the camera of my phone. The only makeup I am wearing on this picture is foundation. and that’s it. nothing else. Admittedly this is still a VERY flattering picture of me but at least it doesn't have the 'beauty shot' setting of my usual camera and is much more accurate picture of me. This photo hasn't been smoothed in any way, shape or form (eeek!) but does have a colour filter applied to it to make it look better.





This puffed by nature under eye action, combined with my droopy lids is what I hate my eyes more than anything else on my face. These very eyes are the reason why ALL MY LIFE people have been giving me comments. Total strangers (for some reason the majority being taxi drivers!!) who I have never met before would comment that I look tired. I get ‘you look tired’ comments all the time. I have often been asked if I smoke weed because my eyes look like I am high on something. niiiiice!


The worst was that this ticket control guy in Manchester train station asking me if I have been in a fight because of the way my eyes look. Naturally, it would have caused a riot if I did retaliate and asked him if he had been sleeping in a bed of charcoal the night before because of the colour of his skin. Rest assured that I didn’t make that offensive racial comment but I was left rather offended myself.

SINCE WHEN IS IT ACCEPTABLE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW YOU VERY WELL TO TELL YOU THAT YOU LOOK TIRED? I can’t get my head round it.

But I have decided to fight back. A colleague at work (from a different department than me, I probably see her maybe 3 times a year, if that) thought it would be lovely to comment on how tired I look. I said ‘You look like you’ve put on weight yourself’. Somehow she never felt the need to comment on tired I look. I wonder why?


Highlighted below the bane of my life, my under eye action, or under eye triangles as I'd to call them.





and below, me and my very potent under eye concealer ... it's called Paint Shop Pro. *sigh*





Back to the real world, I am not getting younger. It’s about time I took care of myself and use an under eye concealer. I would love it:

if you could tell me the under eye concealer you swear by, the one that you've been purchasing the most and which you feel (if that does exist) actually does conceal/improve something and doesn't seep into your smiles lines.

Is it concealer or highlighter which I need?
Any pointers would be most appreciated,
thank you so much for reading xx

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